


can i get your name?

by johnsuh



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Lowercase, M/M, doyu friendship, irene pops up here and there, taeyong makes a cameo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-31 07:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18586573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnsuh/pseuds/johnsuh
Summary: yuta works in a coffee shop and one client becomes really intriguing to him after he discovers he keeps giving him a different name every time.





	can i get your name?

**Author's Note:**

> hello everyone.  
> this is a lovechild of my yuil agenda and my procastrination on school work and other projects.  
> not beta read and english isn't my first language but hopefully there aren't many mistakes whoop whoop

yuta was working the register that busy morning and he thanked the retail gods he didn’t have to make coffee during rush hours at the cafe. it was nearing 9am but the traffic wasn’t getting any smaller. but nonetheless he had his trademark smile on his face and served the clients with his usual enthusiasm. 

to be honest he preferred taking the orders rather than preparing them. it didn’t require any skills other than his innate ability to handle human interaction. of course some troublesome clients would pop up every now and then but in general working the register was the most pleasurable time he always had during work hours.

the line moved on and suddenly he was struck by the most beautiful boy he had ever seen. he had to be around his age, most likely also a university student.

'hello what can i get for you?'he asked as politely as always, trying hard for his face to remain blank of any emotion.

'iced strawberry green tea please.'

yuta was taken aback a little. who in this age orders an iced tea at starbucks first thing in the morning? but he didn’t let it show.

'that’ll be 5,900 won. can i get your name please?'

'jihoon.'

'thank you jihoon have a nice day!'

he passed the cup to employees currently operating the machines. and he made a mental note to look out for jihoons until the end of the day.

***

yuta put on his apron, slurped the remaining sip of his iced americano and braced himself before a second early morning shift in a row.

his afternoon classes on thursdays and free fridays were both a blessing and a curse. he had all friday afternoons and evenings all to himself but that meant working early in the morning both of those days every week.

he had already checked his schedule and unfortunately this time he wasn’t lucky enough to be serving the clients.

the coffee shop was right about to open so he took his position and he could already see clients lining up behind the glass door. it was barely 6am but the sheer sight of what was about to go down gave him the energy he needed to survive this shift.

around 9am he was in the midst of work but an unusual order he was supposed to make threw him off. iced pineapple black tea. this reminded him of yesterday's situation with that client named jihoon but this cup unmistakingly had woojin written on it.

he didn’t pay any more thought to it and simply prepared the order, mixing tea with pineapple syrup and pouring it over ice in a plastic cup.

'iced tea for woojin!- he shouted making himself heard over the bustle of a crowded coffee shop.'

'that’s me.' he heard a familiar muffled voice. his eyes met the same pair of eyes from yesterday. everything about him was the same, the messy dark hair with an undercut, the same awkward smile and even the same black jean jacket he had worn the day before.

yuta fast regained his composure and handed him his beverage faking a polite smile.

'thank you.'he said and went away to stand next to who yuta assumed was his friend, still waiting for his drink to be prepared.

'yuta! another order for you!' doyoung shouted from behind the counter. yuta shot his mysterious client one last glance and got back to work. 'he will be gone soon anyway.' he tried to convince himself. but forgetting a cute client seemed like more of a challenge this time more than ever.

***

the mysterious boy didn’t show up during both of his sunday evening and wednesday afternoon shifts. that didn't discourage him from making a note on his phone that said:

mysterious boy

thursday jihoon

friday woojin

he made it on his way back to the dorm after the wednesday shift that left him unsatisfied yet hopeful because the next day he was working the earliest shift which made it easier to encounter him.

two brief interactions were enough to spark an interest in him which was unexplainable but also very predictable. he loved all things mysterious and unsolved. add a cute boy into the mix and you got yourself a case yuta would be after.

surprisingly enough he was the first one to arrive at his workplace on thursday. his antsiness made him unable to stay asleep in the morning. he felt dumb putting more energy into finding out who actually that cute stranger was than his uni classes. but it was stronger than him. and there are few forces stronger than a determined scorpio bisexual.

luckily for him he was working the counter for the first half of the shift before his break and it included the time he had shown up previously both of the times.

other employees started arriving not longer after he changed and started checking on the supplies.

he heard the sound of high heels before he heard a familiar voice:

'wow, yuta, didn’t expect you to come in so early. that’s your new record.'his manager praised him.

'thanks joohyun but don’t get used to it. couldn’t sleep.'

she sent him a sympathetic smile and went to the backroom to get ready for work.

everyone came more or less on time and they could open at 6am according to the schedule. with a wave of customers yuta pushed everything irrelevant to the back of his mind. the first wave is always the worst because those people had been queuing outside and waiting for the cafe fo open for around 10-15 minutes. crazy if you ask yuta. he’s pretty sure the costa right next block opens at least an hour earlier.

morning rush in general is pretty bad. it’s a swarm of grumpy adults under time pressure and in need of caffeine. it usually gets better around 9, but you wouldn’t be able to call the coffee shop empty even at 1pm when barely anyone is out in the city.

and there he came right when yuta expected him to burst through the door. traffic inside was slowly dying out so he didn’t have to wait in line too long but it was enough for yuta to notice that he was visibly shorter than most of the male customers.

when his turn came yuta kept it professional but he had to admit it was pretty hard when he knew that little bastard was lying to his face.

'hello. what can i get you?'

'medium hibiscus iced tea.'

'can i get your name please?'

'minhyuk.'

yuta scribbled it on the cup and also drew a little question mark next to the name. he wasn’t original at all in choices of his names. they were always from a list probably called ‘most popular korean boy names throughout the 90s’

what was his reason? did he collect those cups with different names on them? did he have a really embarrassing name he didn’t want to reveal? was he a foreigner and couldn’t bother with his real name so he always made one up on spot?

yuta’s mind calmed down only around ten minutes after he and his friends left. he was intrigued before but now he was getting frustrated. both with him and the fact that he let him rile himself up so easily.

***

mysterious boy

thursday jihoon

friday woojin

thursday minhyuk

friday jisung

thursday tom

friday minjun

wednesday minho

thursday sungmin

friday hyunwoo

thursday albert

friday jinho

sunday taejoon

thursday donghyun

***

'why don’t you just ask him out the next time you see him?' doyoung asked him. they were on their way back to their respective dorms and yuta was in a weird mood to overshare so he spilled the beans about his mysterious client.

'it’s not that simple doyoung.'

'it literally is. you see him come in, brace yourself and when it’s his turn to order-bam. you got yourself a date.'

'but what if he’s only intriguing to me because there’s a mist of mystery surrounding him? what if his name is bob? or something? what if he doesn’t respect women?'

'you’re being dramatic.'

yuta gasped and stopped in his tracks.

'what if he’s straight?'

'you’ll never find out if you don’t.ask.him.out.'

doyoung went two steps back to get yuta and dragged him forward by his forearm.

'no.'

'fine but if you see him on a date with someone else in that damn coffee shop don't expect me to not say i told you so.'

yuta just hummed and kicked a pebble laying on the pavement.

*** 

'your name?'

'shawn.'

'how do you spell that?' he needn’t have asked that question. but he wanted to know if today's inspiration was shawn mendes, sean paul or maybe shaun the sheep.

's-h-a-w-n.'

shawn mendes it is. he didn’t seem like his target audience but yuta was already used to the fact that he was full of surprises. and praise the lord it wasn’t sean paul. to say the least, he had a bad incident at one party with sean paul playing in the background. he’s traumatized to this day. and so probably is doyoung. and that one guy whose name he didn’t remember. and… yeah stop thinking about it. focus on work.

'thank you have a nice day.'

he sent yuta a lovely smile and moved on to designated waiting area. his eyes followed him but when he spotted doyoung wiggling his eyebrows at him from behind the coffee machine he immediately looked down pretending to be cleaning the register. only when he made sure he got back to work he went on to serve another client.

***

'can i have a crush on someone i don’t actually know and i don’t even know their name despite seeing them a few times a week?' he asked taeyong, his roommate, one evening when they were chilling on the sofa with netflix playing in the background.

'that sounds weirdly specific what have you gotten yourself into?'

'there’s this client…'

'a client? yuta we’ve been over this. remember that cute blond british girl? or that one time you tried flirting with a guy and then it turned out he was from monsta x or something?'

'no but listen. i noticed him… a decent amount of time ago. and every single time he gives me a different name. like what’s his point? but at the same time he’s cute. like really really cute. idol material cute.'

'why don’t you just ask him out the next time you serve him?'

'that’s literally what doyoung told me like three weeks ago. i’m not gonn…'

'wait you told doyoung before you told me? im offended.'

'we work together. it was easier to tackle the subject.'

taeyong pouted. he was yuta’s self proclaimed best friend and he had every reason to feel offended. it’s just that it wasn't easy for yuta to open up about his feelings.

'fine, you’re forgiven but you gotta do something about him.'

'like what?'

'like writing your phone number on his cup and calling him by ‘cute boy’ instead of whatever bullshit name he tries to give you next.'

yuta grinned at the sheer thought.

'no, don’t. i was joking.' taeyong looked at him with concern.

'taeyong, you know i would never ever do that. or wouldn’t i?'

'for the love of god please just stick to bad flirting and you’ll get another wannabe shownu swooning.'

'it was actually him and you know that, you were there.'

'i know that it was him but i’m not sure your flirting skills were convincing enough.'

'yuta crossed his arms and focused on whatever episode of the office was playing currently.'

'yuta? yuta?! come on i was joking.'

'yuta is unavailable right now please leave a message.'

'you’re unbelievable.'

'message delivered.'

taeyong looked at him one last time and focused on the tv as well. he knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t actually mad but also that it was better to just drop it rather than not and yuta would be over it in the next 5 minutes.

***

'hello what will it be for you?'

'medium iced passion tea.'

'anything else?'

'no, that’s it.'

'that’ll be 6,200 won. your name?'

'chanhyuk.'

'thank you, have a nice day.' yuta smiled genuinely.

'thanks, you too.'

***

'hello what can i get you?'

'iced chamomile tea with raspberry syrup.'

'what size?'

'ummm…' he took a few seconds to answer. 'large.'

'that’s 8,500 won. can i get your name please?'

'yunho.'

'thanks yunho.' he said the name squinting his eyes trying to maybe spark guilt in him but he just grinned awkwardly and moved not to block the line.

***

the order yuta was preparing was iced black tea lemonade. the cup said hyunbin but he knew it was his mysterious boy’s.

his suspicion confirmed itself when he called out the name and then behind his eyes emerged he in his full glory. undercut grown out by now and devoid of his signature jean jacket now that the days had gotten warmer.

he made sure to look him straight in his eyes when handing him the cup and a smirk adorned his face but the boy didn’t even look at him.

yuta didn’t want to admit he was disappointed but he definitely felt a pang in his stomach.

***

yuta wasn’t even looking up when the next customer started ordering. he would’ve been annoyed if he hadn’t recognized the voice.

'medium mango ice tea please.'

he put his head up smiling widely.

'of course, that’ll be 5,200 won. what’s your name?'

'jihoon.'

yuta instantly looked up from the cup he was about to write on and stared at him in silence for a few seconds before he got down to writing the name on the cup and passing it on to another employee.

he used that name before. it was the first time since yuta first noticed him few months back that he repeated a name. and it left him with an unnamed feeling.

***

'doyoung i need your help.'

they were in the staff room getting ready to head back to dorms before their afternoon classes. doyoung said nothing but his facial expression read ‘carry on’.

'im gonna do this. im asking him out on a date the next time he steps his foot into this cafe. i can't take this anymore.'

'wow. but why the sudden change? i thought you were fine just daydreaming about him.'

'i was. at least i think i was? nevermind.' he took a deep breath to help him make a coherent sentence out of his racing thoughts. 'today he gave me a name he had used before. what if this is just some twisted social experiment and its about to end and he’ll just disappear and leave me without explanation?'

doyoung patted him on the back.

'hey. calm down. i’ll do whatever i can to help you do this but first you need to tell me your plan.'

'oh.' yuta just stared at doyoung.

'you don’t have a plan?'

yuta shook his head.

'okay… what time does your first class start today?'

'2:30pm.'

'great. we have plenty of time then. we’ll start thinking it over on our way home and then you can come to mine and we’ll polish it. if it stretches out too long i’ll just skip my eng lit lecture.'

'you’d do this for me?'

'i am doing this for you silly. plus it’s the most boring class i take and i'm tired of your whining.'

yuta pushed him playfully and they both laughed.

'now come on before joohyun kicks us out for being so damn loud.'

***

when yuta arrived at work on friday morning doyoung was already there. they bumped fists and sent each other a sly grin. 

yuta went to the backroom to get changed and when he came back doyoung fixed his apron and asked:

'remember our plan?'

'perfectly.'

'great. now don’t sweat. it’s not even 6am you have more than three hours to mentally prepare.' doyoung spun him around so he was facing him. he lowered himself so yuta was looking him straight in the eye.' and remember. you got this. you’re charming. you’re cute. and you’re yuta.'

that made yuta crack a laugh.

'thank you.'

they made sure their performance was exceptionally efficient the whole morning so joohyun would turn a blind eye to their little stunt they were about to make.

when the time was nearing 9am yuta got more and more anxious with every strike of the hands of the clock. he was focusing more on the front door than the line right in front of him.

at exactly 9:14 the door opened and h e stepped into the coffee shop. there were still three people before him but yuta’s heart was about to jump out of his chest. he looked around to search for doyoung. when their eyes met he gave him a reassuring nod.

these three minutes stretched like hours but when it was finally the mysterious boy’s time to order yuta was ready.

'what can i get you?'

his heart was beating fast and adrenaline was rushing through his body.

'raspberry iced tea.'

yuta said nothing more and went on to prepare the beverage with doyoung stepping in to change him behind the counter. according to the plan doyoung was supposed to instruct yuta’s customer to go wait for his drink. he must have been really surprised and yuta tried hard not to imagine his expression.

when he was done he scribbled his phone number on the plastic cup. and took a deep breath.

he came to the edge of the counter and called:

'raspberry iced tea for a cute boy.'

everyone became silent. all the other employees stopped whatever they were doing. the clients’ murmur disappeared completely. all the eyes were on him and he especially felt joohyun drilling a hole in his head.

'raspberry iced tea for a cute boy?' he tried one more time.

the guy stepped forward and came to him slowly, step by step. he stopped a few inches in front of yuta.

he handed him the drink with a shy smile and asked: 'now can i get your name, please?' he looked at him beggingly.

he smiled and nodded but before he uttered a word joohyun shouted: 'yuta if you don’t get out of there to take him to the table right this moment i’ll reconsider giving you the rest of the day off!'

yuta turned around and grinned at her. he also saw doyoung giving him thumbs up and when yuta was coming from behind the counter he gave him a low five.

he joined his boy at a small table for two people.

'taeil.'

'taeil.' yuta repeated. 'nice to finally meet you taeil, i’m yuta.'

they both giggled not really knowing what else to do.

'wow, a mystery solved. can i ask you a question?'

'shoot.' taeil took a sip of his drink.

'why? what was your reason?'

'to order raspberry iced tea?' he asked him half-jokingly half-obliviously.

'to give me different name every single time for a good few months.'

'oh… that. 'his eyes focused on the green straw. 'to be completely honest. i kind of found you very cute and felt it would be unfair if you knew my name and i didn’t know yours. and as time passed it was just fun to fuck around.'

'wow.' yuta was in deep shock. 'that’s... not exactly what i expected. my number one pick was that your actual name is really embarrassing or something.'

it got silent again and yuta thought frantically on anything to say.

'not a fan of coffee?' he settled on asking, pointng at taeil's cup.

'no, not really. i feel like you're about to be really offended. you know, as a barista.'

'no, no, no, no. everyone's entitled to their own tastes and opinions.'

suddenly doyoung emerged out of nowhere, left an iced coffee in front of yuta, shoot taeil a smile and left them alone.

yuta took a sip of his drink to taste it and it was perfect. exactly the way he liked it.

'you wanna get out of here? go for a walk or something? as you probably heard i have the rest of the day free.'

taeil grinned.

'sure. but give me a moment.'

he grabbed yuta’s americano and ran with it to the counter. yuta couldn’t see what he was doing there but he soon came back.

'come on.' taeil said, handed him his drink and gestured towards the door.

yuta looked at the cup and saw a phone number written on it. he grinned widely and stood up.

'okay. let’s go.'

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!!  
> catch me on twitter @nctvape or curiouscat curiouscat.me/moontael


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